Three guilty of plot to fix English football matches

Three men have been found guilty of conspiring to fix English football matches

Three men have been found guilty of conspiring to fix English football matches in the first convictions of the modern era, following an investigation by The Telegraph.

Chann Sankaran and Krishna Sanjey Ganeshan, businessmen from Singapore, and Michael Boateng, a former professional footballer, were found guilty after a six-week trial. Sankaran and Ganeshan have links to the notorious international match fixer Wilson Raj Perumal, and were said to be attempting to establish a network of corrupt footballers in Britain.

The three were convicted after the National Crime Agency began a major investigation based on information provided by The Telegraph, which has now been given exclusive access to the NCA’s undercover inquiry.

Sankaran claimed to be able to fix matches in the English lower leagues for £70,000. Detectives followed him and Ganeshan as they travelled to meet Boateng and other players to discuss plans to throw two matches.

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One game, on Nov 26 last year, involved Wimbledon AFC and Dagenham and Redbridge. Another, on Nov 30, involved Brighton-based Whitehawk FC, for whom Boateng, a former Bristol Rovers defender, was playing at the time.

There is no suggestion that anyone from Wimbledon or Dagenham was involved in match fixing.

The plot ultimately failed but detectives believe it was the start of a scheme to create a network of corrupt footballers.

Sankaran, 33, and Ganeshan, 43, were described as the “central” figures in the plot, while Boateng, 22, of Croydon, south London, was a “willing recruit”.

The trio will be sentenced on Friday after they were found guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court. The convictions are the first for match-fixing in this country since the 1960s.

Richard Warner, an NCA branch commander, said: “The NCA is in no doubt that Ganeshan and Sankaran were at the very beginning of a concerted attempt to build a network of corrupt players in the UK.

“By bringing this investigation to the NCA when they did, The Telegraph provided a vital opportunity for law enforcement to intervene early enough to secure convictions and put a stop to Sankaran’s and Ganeshan’s much wider and more sinister ambitions.”

Another Whitehawk FC player, Hakeem Adelakun, 23, of Thornton Heath, south London, was cleared by the jury. He told the court he knew nothing about a plot to fix matches. The jury was discharged after it failed to reach a decision on Moses Swaibu, 23, of Bermondsey, also a former Whitehawk player. He was granted unconditional bail pending a retrial in September.

In a separate investigation into match fixing, 13 people, including professional footballers, have been arrested and released on bail.